March Talk: Ann-Rachael Harwood on the Antarctic explorer Edward Wilson

 I was not able to attend the talk, so am including the information about the talk and then some photographs kindly taken by our Treasurer, Brigid Harkness used to illustrate the talk.

Ann-Rachael is a passionate Antarctic historian with a special interest in the life and work of Edward Adrian Wilson. She is a museum curator by training and had a varied career working at the Tower of London cataloguing cannon balls, to time at the old prison at Northleach, the Corinium Museum in Cirencester and lately at The Wilson in Cheltenham. Here, she encountered the work and writings of the naturalist, doctor, artist and Antarctic scientist Edward Adrian Wilson and became fascinated by the frozen southern continent. 

About the talk...

Edward Adrian Wilson (1872 to 1912) was born in Cheltenham, and spent his childhood roaming the hills and fields around the town, totally absorbed in the natural world when he was not at school. He pursued that love throughout his life, training as a Doctor but still sketching every living creature he came across from ant to elephant.  Wilson went on two expeditions with Scott to Antarctica, painting and drawing the landscape, mapping the coastline and mountains, capturing and dissecting natural history specimens and starting us off on our love affair with Emperor Penguins. He led a trip in the Southern winter to find out about the Emperor Penguins' breeding habits, now referred to as 'The Worst Journey in the World'. He was one of the 4 men picked to go to the South Pole with Scott but died on the return journey in 1912. His legacy lives on through the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Scott Polar Research Institute as well as the many amazing scenes he painted in Antarctica.....and Penguin biscuits!

The Wilson, Cheltenham's art gallery and museum was named after Edward Adrian Wilson.

The Crippetts in Leckhampton was somewhere Wilson used to go to immerse himself in nature and draw.

'That God should lay such beauty at our feet' is what the writing accompanying the drawings done one imagines from observations in the field.

Below a great photos of those on the expedition. They don't appear to be wearing very much clothing considering the conditions

This presumably is one of Wilson's paintings.

I'm sorry I missed the talk, Wilson sounds like a fascinating person who died at the early age of 40 in the Antarctic.

Private View 14 March

 It was wonderful to attend the Private View celebrating the opening of two exhibitions, Seriously... and A Very British Art Revolution, at Museum and Art Swindon on 14 March. The Friend's exhibition called Seriously... runs from 25 February until 13 September is something I am very proud to say I have been involved in helping put together, along with other members of the Friends. Friends who curated the exhibition will be giving a talk on the exhibition at 7.30pm on 24 April. The other exhibition, A Very British Art Revolution runs from 11 March until 5 July, it was curated by Katie Ackrill and Kirsty Hartsiotis, and is a great exhibition of works from the Swindon Collection, with a focus on the first decade of the twentieth century.

I took a few photographs of the event and have also used some photos taken by Claire Parsons and will indicate when this is the case, although it's fairly obvious.

We started downstairs at the Civic Offices with drinks provided by the Friends and served by them as well. After a bit of mingling and drinking, there were speeches, starting with Kirsty Hartsiotis, Collections and Exhibitions Officer seen above.

Next we heard from Andrew Cross, Chair of the Friends about how pleased he was with both exhibitions. Below you can see there was a quick shot of the audience. I'm not sure howmany attended, but it seemed pleasantly full.

Finally Frances Yeo, Museums Manager talked about how pleased she was with the turnout and the exhibitions.

We then went upstairs and looked at the two exhibitions and chatted. I took a few more photos

It was lovely to see so many people enjoying the exhibitions and chatting to each other

You will recognise some people. It was lovely to see Barbara Swann, who was Deputy Chair and writer of the newsletter, among other things had travelled from Swansea to be at the PV.

The following photos are much less 'point and see what you get', and are by courtesy of Claire Parson,  one of the curators of the Seriously... exhibition and part of an unlocking collections team and also member of the Friend's committee.

Above setting the scene

Below Barbara looking at the Robert Priseman's.

and below, Jeremy Lune appreciating a painting.

So there we are, a great evening celebrating lots of the Swindon Collection being on display for the first time in 5 years.

February Talk on the Cerne Abbas Giant by Mike Allen

 We were very fortunate to welcome Mike Allen, a geoarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist who coordinated all the archaeological science for the Cerne Giant excavations. A link to the information we were given prior to the talk is here. I took photos of the slides Mike posted for us while he talked about the magnitude of the hill carving. At Bangor University in 1970, I was impressed with our rag week attempts to raise money for WWT when some students carved a panda into a local hillside. The link here lists later exploits for rag week. I have a lifelong interest in hill figures as a result of this early exposure to them.

Mike produced some very informative slides to help answer questions and elucidate what we now know about the figure after his research.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is found in Dorset, north of Weymouth and Dorchester and surrounded by archaeological sites

This slide showed how he's changed over the years, basically in 1908 the navel was incorporated into  the phallus during a scouring operation, increasing it by 6 feet.

Apart from why this man was carved into a prominent hillside, there's also the question when was it carved and as you can see from the table, many people differed in their views

Above some handy stats

And a comparison with Wilmington Man in Sussex who isn't nearly as impressive is he?

There's clearly a book about the research available if you click on the link above

Even before the optically stimulated luminescence results, OSL, they discovered which snails were in the hill wash.

Interesting to see Ravilious painted both hill men, but gave the Giant a brown outline

I've enlarged the last slide for the conclusions because they are fascinating

'Seriously...' the Friend's exhibition

 When thinking of a title for the Friend's exhibition, we felt we couldn't improve on Sir Kenneth Clark's comments over 50 years ago when he said 'They take art seriously in Swindon'. We reflected on this in the Museum and Art website write up of our exhibition. I thought it was worth going a bit further into how this phrase has been used as recently as 2012 when the Public Catalogue Foundation photographed the Swindon Collection of 20th Century art. An exhibition was held then titled 'They take Art Seriously in Swindon' opened by the Patron of the Public Catalogue Foundation: then HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla.

The booklet accompanying the exhibition had this cover:

 Monteiro, Vicente de Rego, 1899-1970, Tennis (detail) 1928 

Unsure why a Brazilian artist's painting was chosen for the front cover

and the following on the first page:

Dr Fred Hohler, Founder of the Public Catalogue Foundation said the following as a Foreword:

''I am frequently asked the question ''What has the Public Catalogue Foundation discovered?'' Of course we have discovered nothing. All we can hope to do is to rediscover what previous generations knew about, loved and respected and which the present generation has lost. 

Losing sight of these collections and their contents can happen very quickly. Sir Kenneth Clarke made his remark ''They take art seriously in Swindon'' less than 50 years ago. Yet, when the Gloucester and Wiltshire catalogue was launched in the summer of last year it was clear that very few people knew of the Swindon Art Gallery or the extraordinary quality of its collection of paintings by twentieth century British artists.

The loss of the Swindon Art Gallery would be tragic!

Today's visit therefore, to Swindon Art Gallery by the Patron of the Public Catalogue Foundation, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, is particularly welcome. I very much hope that it will inspire a re-discovery of the gallery and its rich collection of paintings.

It deserves never to be forgotten.''

We would all echo that sentiment, hence the name for the exhibition, bringing some of the favourite works on show again for the first time in at least 5 years.

'Seriously ...' is not the only art exhibition coming to MAS. There is also an exhibition entitled 'A Very British Art Revolution' Rebellion and reaction in the early 20th century from 11th March to 5 July in one of the large galleries.

Here are 2 posters advertising both exhibitions with their dates:

Plus if you are a member of the Friends, you will be invited to a private view to celebrate the opening of both exhibitions. Exciting eh?

'Seriously ...' FMAS Choices and the Process

 I am really pleased to let you know about an exhibition opening on Tuesday 25 February, of works chosen by members of the Friends of Museum and Art Swindon which will be displayed in the small gallery where an exhibition of Wessex Landscapes was shown alongside the Hardy exhibition. Those involved will be giving a talk to the Friends on Thursday 24 April so I don't want to give away too much of the process by which items were selected, or talk too much about the works selected because it will be good for most of it to be a surprise. 

The first call outs via email went out to the Friends in August 2024 asking for volunteers to get involved in selecting artworks and ceramics from the collection. There were six of us initially involved and then this whittled down to a regular three of us meeting Katie Ackrill, Collections and Exhibitions Officer to suggest works and then vote on them. This was a fascinating process which went on seemingly for weeks as we kept meeting and trying to reach a consensus and respect differences in taste without getting too personal. We learnt a lot about the collections and to appreciate works we had never really looked at properly. 

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited by Katie for a day to help hang the exhibition, what a fabulous opportunity! Naturally I took a few photos to remind us of the day and share with others. I'll start with a serious shot of three of the main selectors: from the left Miles Franklin, Claire Parsons and me, Linda Kasmaty. Although Claire was wearing a gorgeous red coat, we decided that black and white looked good.

                 

I'll now add a few of the hanging day photos:

Some paintings had the correct fixings for the hanging system, others didn't

Some of you will recognise Andrew Cross Chair of the Friends who joined us to help on the day

In the background you'll see John Wood, Collections and Exhibitions Manager, as well as Katie Ackrill

It was a real treat to be able to see the reverse side of paintings

Miles and Andrew in action

and looking at 'Monument'

This is the reverse side of the Bomberg

above more fitting fixing

Above one of my favourite ceramic pieces some of you may remember on display at Apsley House. It is made by Laurance Simon and one of 50 ceramics gifted by Mark Golder and Brian Thomson in 2015 in memory of Ron Sloman . There was much discussion about this piece.

It takes four people to hang a painting!!

Appreciating the work once it's on the wall

'Jerusalem' by David Bomberg was chosen by John Walsh, a long standing member of the Friends who played a large role in the committee at one time. The frame was really heavy.

We also described, said what we liked about 3 works on another day. Katie will edit what we have said down to 5minutes I think and it will appear on Bloomberg Connects. Also look out for descriptions of works by those who chose them which will appear beside the works, possibly.

More on this exhibition in the next blog post.

The Glasgow Boys - January talk

 Dr Keith Parsons was very kindly able to step in at the last moment when the scheduled speaker could not give the talk. Keith gave an illustrated talk about The Glasgow Boys  a group of a radical young painters who represent the beginnings of modernism in Scottish painting. In the early 1880s, disillusioned with academic painting, they painted contemporary rural subjects often working outdoors. Strong influences include French and Dutch painters including Jules Bastien-Lepage 1848-1884 and American painter James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903.

In the 1880s, Glasgow was a very successful shipbuilding city with two art institutions, the Glasgow School of Art and the Institute of Fine Arts, a perfect place for a new art movement to emerge with all important patrons like William Burrell 1861-1958 and art dealer Alex Reid playing their part in buying and displaying artworks artists. 

Notable artists from this time included Sir James Guthrie 1859-1930 whose two paintings seen below are hauntingly memorable and beautiful

Above 'In the Orchard' and below 'A Hind's Daughter'

and below, another painting by Sir James Guthrie 'To Pastures New' below

Above 'A Cabbage Garden' by Arthur Melville 1855-1904 and below 'The White Drake' by Arthur Melville 1855-1904

In these few examples of works by the Glasgow Boys, subjects seem to be white fowl, cabbages and an orchard.

Where to see works from the Glasgow Boys:

William Burrell patron and art collector, amassed a collection of over 8000 artworks which he gave to Glasgow in 1944, known as the Burrell Collection, it is now housed in a specially designed building in Pollok National Park in Glasgow. There's also Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to visit. Plus the Fleming Collection which loans works from its 600 pieces. The Scottish National Gallery is situated in Edinburgh.

I can imagine questions about The Glasgow Girls, and yes there were women artists at the turn of the last century with distinctive styles. Well worth investigating another time. I think we have enough galleries to visit in Glasgow to make it a must see destination. Thank you once again Dr Keith Parsons for this fascinating talk.